Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA)

Critical Dates

14 October 2022

Release of 2024 Grant Guidelines

Third Quarter 2022

DE23 Outcomes (released)

14 October 2022

DE24 Applications open in RMS

Monday 31 October 2022

DE24 Eligibility Exemption Request due to RIC (if applicable)

Early November 2022

DE24 Establishment Grant requests due (see 'Establishment Grants for ARC DECRA' heading for further details)

Friday - Tuesday 11 - 15 November 2022

DE24 Submit review ready application to RIC

Wednesday 23 Novemeber 2022

DE24 Request not to assess due to RIC (if applicable)

Friday 25 November 2022

DE24 Request not to assess due to ARC (if applicable)

Monday 5 December 2022 (9.00am)

DE24 Final Application Submission due to RIC

Friday 9 December 2022

DE24 Final Applications due to ARC

29 March - 13 April 2023

DE24 Rejoinders open and close

Third Quarter 2023

DE24 Outcomes

Overview

Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA) supports early career researchers who have typically received their PhD in the last five years or have eligible commensurate career disruption.

The DECRA scheme aims to:

  • support excellent basic and applied research by early career researchers;
  • support national and international research collaboration;
  • enhance the scale and focus of research in Australian Government priority areas;
  • advance promising early career researchers and promote enhanced opportunities for diverse career pathways; and
  • enable research and research training in high quality and supportive environments.

SELECTION CRITERIA

The criteria weighting is as followed:

  • Investigator/Capability: 50%
  • Project Quality and Innovation: 25%
  • Benefit: 15%
  • Feasibility: 10%

FUNDING

The scheme provides funding for up to 200 projects per round. Funding is awarded by the ARC of up to $159,079 per annum for three years, with a per annum salary contribution of $109,079, including 30 per cent on-costs, and up to $50,000 per annum for project costs. Project costs can be used to hire research assistants, support HDR students, or fund equipment, consumables, field research, travel, and dissemination costs. See Section 5 of the Grant Guidelines for more information.

ESTABLISHMENT GRANTS FOR ARC DECRA

Establishment Grants are internal University of Melbourne grants that support ARC DECRA recipients at the university. To be eligible for Chancellery support, matching funding must be provided by the host department/school/faculty on a 1:1 basis. Applications for Establishment Grants should be requested at the ARC DECRA application stage. Each faculty has their own internal requirements to apply for this grant. Refer to Establishment Grants for ARC DECRAs for details on how to apply.

D3 STATEMENT BY THE ADMINISTERING ORGANISATION

IMPORTANT: It is mandatory for your ‘D3 Statement by the Administering Organisation’ to be submitted for review and approval. As this is an official statement from the university, a final version needs to be officially approved through RIC before it is uploaded it into RMS.

The requirements for review vary depending on faculty. Please view your faculty requirements here. When drafting your statement, you must use the university approved template and consult the university guide (these two documents can be accessed below under Supporting documents > RIC Documents and Resources).

SCHEME LIMITS

Candidates may be nominated for the DECRA twice over the period in which they are eligible. This includes applications that are withdrawn after the grant closing date or those that are deemed ineligible.

For information regarding project limits under the ARC Discovery Program please consult the Grant Guidelines.

ACTIVE PROJECT AND ACTIVE PROJECTS ASSESSMENT DATE

An Active Project refers to an ARC Project that is receiving funding according to the terms of the original Funding Agreement, or has any carryover funds approved by the ARC, or an approved variation to the Project’s end date. Therefore, if a project has carried forward any funding and the end date has changed, the NEW end date determines if the project is active. Active projects can be viewed via the applicants RMS profile by selecting Person Profile > Current ARC Projects> End Date. Please note that projects with Final Reports due are not considered active projects.

The Active Project Assessment Date is a scheme-specific date which considers Active Projects (as per the above definition) and Projects under assessment. This date is important as it is used to assess applicant's cross-scheme eligibility, i.e. whether they are within the limits of the number of ARC applications and projects a participant can be named on.

The ARC will calculate active projects as at the closing time of submission of Proposals (and may calculate this rule again as other scheme rounds’ announcements are made and End of Year Reports are submitted).

The key dates for the DE24 round are:

DE24 Funding Commencement Date: 1 January 2024

DE24 Active Project Assessment Date: 1 July 2024

Note: An applicant cannot apply for a DECRA if it will put them over the project limit at the Active Project Assessment Date. For the purposes of eligibility, both awarded projects and under assessment projects counts towards project limits for the DECRA scheme. For example, an applicant can apply for the DECRA scheme if they have one Discovery Project (DP) (either awarded or under assessment) which ends after the Active Project Assessment Date. However, an applicant cannot apply for the DECRA scheme if they have two Discovery Projects (either awarded or under assessment) that will end after the Active Project Assessment Date.

RESEARCH OUTPUTS

Research outputs must first be added to an applicant's ARC Research Management System (RMS) profile before they can be selected for inclusion on an application. The University's recommended approach is to export research outputs from Elements as a BibTeX file and then import this file into RMS to achieve best data integrity.

Please contact your local Faculty Research Office or research-outputs@unimelb.edu.au for help with the process or to amend data in Elements.

Further esources to assist with managing Research Outputs are available below under Supporting documents > Research Outputs.

REQUEST NOT TO ASSESS

If you have a conflict of interest with a researcher from an external institution it is possible to request that they not be considered as a potential detailed assessor for your application. More details about this can be found on the ARC Request Not to Assess webpage.

How to apply

  1. Submit a Notice of Intent (NOI)

    The NOI should be completed early to provide RIC with DECRA candidate contact details and to ensure the candidate is added to the email list. There is no deadline for submission of the NOI.

  2. Update RMS profile

    Candidates must obtain access to RMS and update their profile information (see RMS information)

  3. Review documentation

    Review the Grant Guidelines, the Instructions to Applicants and the Changes documents.

  4. Complete the draft application

    Log on to RMS to complete the draft application.

  5. Statement by the Administering Organisation

    Work on the Statement with your supervisor and department/faculty.  Please see Faculty specific review instructions here.

  6. Eligibility Exemption Request

    If applicable, complete the Eligibility Exemption Request form. This is a spreadsheet that details career interruptions for applicants whose PhD was awarded prior to the DE24 eligible PhD award date of 1 March 2018. The form is available here.

    This form must be sent to ric-arcdecra@unimelb.edu.au by Monday 31 October 2022 so that RIC can arrange for the DVC(R) to certify eligibility.

  7. Submit 'Review ready'* application to RIC

    Submit application to RIC (ric-arcdecra@unimelb.edu.au) within the RIC internal submission period - 11-15 November 2022. Include the following:

    • An electronic copy of the complete review ready draft application downloaded as a PDF from RMS.
    • Applicants from Architecture, Building and Planning, Arts, Law and Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences  please send your Statement by the Administering Organisation in a word document (using the template letterhead provided below). Email this along with your application to ric-arcdecra@unimelb.edu.au. Applicants from all other faculties will have their statements reviewed by their faculties - see here for details.
    • *A 'review ready' draft application

      Part A - Administrative Summary

      Part B - Classifications/ Statistical Info

      Part C - Project Eligibility

      Part D - Project Description (include Project Title, Investigator/Capability, Benefit and Communication of Results. The draft may exclude the Aims and Background, Project Quality and Innovation, Feasibility, References and Acknowledgments sections).

      Part E - Project Cost

      Part F -  Participant Details including ROPE

  8. Application review

    Two RIC staff members will review the application and provide the applicant with feedback via email.

  9. Complete the application

    After taking feedback from the RIC team into consideration, complete the application in RMS. It is suggested advice is sought from colleagues, Faculty Mentors, etc. before finalising the application.

  10. Submit the UOM Authority to Submit form

    The Authority to Submit form must be submitted to RIC via email to ric-arcdecra@unimelb.edu.au before 5 December 2022. This form should include:

    • Complete the compliance and eligibility section
    • Signature of the Head of Department

    Please note that we cannot arrange HoD signing for you, this must be done by the applicant. Electronic signatures are permitted.

    This is an ARC requirement and the application cannot be submitted to ARC until received.

  11. Final submission

    By 9.00am of the RIC due date for Final application (5 December 2022), the applicant must:

    • Submit final application by clicking ‘Submit to Research Office’ in RMS
    • Email RIC (ric-arcdecra@unimelb.edu.au) a pdf copy of the final application and a scanned, signed Authority to Submit form

    Note: Applications without a completed Authority to Submit form cannot be submitted to the ARC

  12. RIC will submit the application

    Once the application has been submitted to ARC, you will receive an email from RIC confirming submission.

Supporting documents

ARC Documents and Resources

RIC Documents and Resources

(UoM login required for some of the following documents/links. Please email ric-arcdecra@unimelb.edu.au or your faculty research office if you require copies)

Research Outputs

Seminars

  • 2024 DECRA Info Webinar - 27 October 2022 - Slides - Video
  • 2023 DECRA Info Webinar & Budgets - 16 November 2021 - Slides - Video

Rejoinders

Note: Assessor comments should only include details on Investigator/Capability, Project Quality and Innovation, Benefit, and Feasibility. Assessors should not be commenting on Eligibility and Compliance. If you identify an assessment that contains inappropriate elements you may wish to have this reviewed by the ARC. You can do this by completing an ARC Assessment Review Request form within 3 working days after the opening of the Rejoinder period. Please note that applicants should never contact the ARC directly. Always speak to your Faculty or RIC first.

Contacts

DECRA questions and primary email
ric-arcdecra@unimelb.edu.au

Key contacts

Leah Sullivan +61 3 8344 2012
Carrie Liang +61 3 8344 0440